OF UNIVERSALISM 159

taneous and automatic. The phenomenon Is not in the least
unusual or surprising, and in fact coincides completely with
the normal developments among neighbouring peoples ; but
just because it happens to apply to the people of God, religious
prejudice—Christian more than Jewish—has long stood in the
way of its recognition. It is impossible for anyone who still
denies it to understand the historical process which led up to
the birth of Christianity.